1871 



THE POMOLOGIST AND GARDENER. 



275 



of the pomologist. This idea is well expressed in 

 the following lines, illustrative of the blessings of 



labor : 



"The first man and the tiret of men, 

 Were tillers of the soil ; 

 And that was mercy's mandate then 

 Which destined man to toil." 



If man seize the lightning in his hand and make 

 it work for him iu earth, air or water; if he can de- 

 scend into the secret labratory of Nature, and learn 

 the constituents of soils and manures, and their 

 adaption to each other ; if he can learn how she 

 prepares the appropriate food for all vegetable life, 

 from the humblest plant clinging elose to the bosom 

 of earth, only blooming to die, to the lofty Sequoia 

 rearing its head to htaveu and braving the tem- 

 pests for thousands of years ; if the physician can 

 discover the agents which generate disease in the 

 animal kingdom, and prescribe antidotes and reme- 

 dies for each, may not the cultivator acquire a 

 knowledge of the diseases which alVect his trees 

 and plants, and how to cure them ? 



Is there any element iu nature which man cannot 

 make subservient to his use V Is there any disease 

 for which nature has not provided a remedy? Is 

 there any enemy to vegetation that cannot be ovei- 

 come? True, there are many things of which we 

 know but little, and wliieh require long and careful 

 study, but there are others whielt are well establish- 

 ed, and which one fact may demonstrate as well as 

 a thousand. 



SHELTER. 



The necessity of shelter was not as soon perceiv- 

 ed as some of the other lessons which I have 

 named ; yet, with perhaps the exception of a few 

 favored spots, its importance year by year is becom- 

 ing more generally appreciated, especially on our 

 open prairies and in the northern and north-west- 

 ern portions of our country. The fact is establish- 

 ed, that the removal of forests diminishes the quan- 

 tity of rain, increases the evaporation of moisture, 

 reduces the temperature, and subjects our fruit to 

 greater vicissitudes, so that the peach and many of 

 our finest pears can be no longer cultivated at the 

 North except in gardens or sheltered places. The 

 importance of shelter was well understood as long 

 agoas the >ime of Quintinye, who, in his work on 

 gardening, gives full directions for planting trees 

 for shelter. This was in a country long settled and 

 denuded of its forests ; and though our ance.stors, 

 planting fruit-trees in a virgin soil, thickly covered 

 with wood, failed to perceive its necessity, we iu our 

 older states, who have come to much the the same 

 conditions as existed in the time of Quintinye, ex- 

 perience the same want. 



There maybe exceptions to this rule, as in the 

 South, where the fruit season is warm and dry, 

 producing similar conditions to those afforded by 

 shelter under glass. We may find varieties, and 

 probably shall, adapted to exposed situations ; but 

 at present the larger majority of our finer fruits 

 will be benefited by the shelter of belts of forest 

 trees. We are glad, therefore, to see the recogni- 

 tion of the advantages of the forest trees 0:1 the 

 part of the managers of our Pacific railways, not 

 only as affording, shelter but as collecting moisture 

 from the atmosphere, and so rendering available 

 vast regions previously uninhabitable from drought. 

 This good work has already been commenced on 

 the line of the Kansas Pacific Railroad. 



METEOROLOGY. 



Besides the lessons which experience has already 



taught us, permit me to mention one which pomolo- 

 gists ought to learn, and which, from present indi- 

 cations, I have no dimbt they will learn. The 

 pomologist should have a better knowledge of the 

 science of meteorology than we now possess. The 

 action of light and heat ; the influence of the winds, 

 of frost, fog, water, and the electrical condition of 

 the air and earth, have a most important bearing, 

 and we believe that when our science shall have at- 

 tained to its greatest perfection, there will be a dis- 

 creet classification of our fruits, assigning to each 

 its proper soil, location and aspect. We must not 

 expect to alter the laws of nature, but to conform 

 to them. We do not expect to restore the lost 

 Pleiad, nor do we expect to find any supernatural 

 means whereby improvement and progress can be 

 attained, without mental or physical exertion, but 

 we should endeavor to understand some of the 

 workings of that mysterious machine which gener- 

 ates and perpetuates all vegetable life. True, the 

 " wind bloweth where it listeth," as of old, but it 

 seems probable, if not certain, from the investiga- 

 tion made at AVa.shington, that a man can not only 

 tell from whence it will come and where it will 

 blow, but where the sun will shed its rays and the 

 clouds diffuse their .showers, and the time may come 

 when the laws which govern the weather may be 

 settled with nearly as much certainty as those 

 which now govern the calculations of the astrono- 

 mer. 



What wonders has science wrought in modern 

 times, but these are only the rudiments of that 

 great plan which Providence has established for 

 the happiness of mankind. " These are but parts 

 of His ways " which we now see, glimmerings of 

 that boundless exhibition of power, wisdom and 

 goodness which shall culminate in the perfection of 

 all created things. 



0EIC41NATrNG NEW VARIETIES. 



I commend to you again, as I have done in my 

 former addresses, and shall continue to do while I 

 live, the important and benevolent work of or- 

 ganizing new varieties of fruit, both as a means of 

 improvement, and as a substitute for those which 

 have experienced the decline incident to all things 

 of human origin. Our country, and in fact the 

 whole world, has been so thoroughly explored, that 

 we can scarcely expect to discover any very im- 

 portant addition to accidental varieties. Our main 

 source of improvement, therefore, is to be found in 

 the production of new kinds from seed, and I again 

 urge upon you the great importance of continuing 

 your efforts in this most interesting and hopeful 

 department of labor. The acquisitions already 

 made give promise of still richer rewards to him 

 who will work with Nature in compelling her to 

 yield to his solicitation for still greater improve- 

 ment. Much has alreadj' been done, but this 

 branch of science is still in its infiincy, and opens 

 for the pomologist a broad field for enterprise. It 

 may require time, and patience, and care to pro- 

 duce a superior variety, but we have the most 

 cheering assurance of the time when every sec- 

 tion of country shall possess fruits adapted to its 

 own locality. There is no better illustration of 

 what can be accomplished, than what has been 

 done, in the production of the various and excel- 

 lent American fruits, which have been raised since 

 the establishment of our Society. If each member 

 should originate one good variety, adapted to a 

 wide extent of territory, or even to his own sec- 

 tion, he would become a public benefactor. Think 



